Various vacuum cleaners having height adjustment devices have been produced in the prior art. In many cases, the height adjustment device includes a carriage to raise and lower the front portion of a vacuum nozzle housing to regulate the height of a brushroll located inside the nozzle housing relative to the surface being cleaned. Such devices are usually user-actuated by a foot pedal that engages a camming mechanism, but it is also known to use electronically or hand-operated devices. In some cases, the height adjustment device also includes a display that indicates the nozzle height position to the operator. An example of such a device is U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0021184, which is incorporated herein by reference.
It is also known to provide vacuum cleaners with illuminated displays. Usually, such illuminated displays include a display indicator and a light source that emits light onto the display indicator. Depending on the function of the display, the display indicator informs the user about the vacuum's operating condition, for example, whether the vacuum cleaner is in operation, the dust bag is full, or what power output the vacuum cleaner is producing.
Although illuminated displays and height adjustment devices are known in the art, such devices are not typically used together because it can be expensive or technically difficult to provide an illuminated nozzle height display. For example, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0021184 illustrates a nozzle height adjustment device that has an LED display associated with it. While this device is useful for providing a simple to understand and brightly lit display to the user, it requires control circuitry and/or sensors to correlate the illuminated display reading with the actual height of the inlet nozzle with accuracy. As such, there still remains a need to provide a simplified and economical light indicating device to illustrate the nozzle height position of a vacuum cleaner.